The consensus from Wales, from the pitch and the coaching booth in the immediate aftermath was that they lost the physical battle, the collisions to use the rugby vernacular, and that it was central to their 29-7 defeat to Ireland at the Aviva Stadium.
It’s a fair summation although it’s probably germane to throw discipline into the mix when looking for the root cause of the loss. Ireland were aggressive in their line speed when they spotted an opportunity to double team a lone Welsh ball carrier and this led to several turnovers.
On the flip side footwork and tip-on passes in possession were valued assets in breaching the Welsh defence. The home side’s ability to retain possession through multiple phases fatigued the visitors. Welsh captain Dan Biggar said: “Spending so much time without the ball, you can be a little bit off because you have spent too much time defending.
“We didn’t get the discipline or physicality right. Ireland won too many collisions and that’s what we need to look at before the next game. If you don’t win collisions against Ireland, it’s difficult. We need to work on that.
“We had a couple of half chances in the first-half, it was a frustrating afternoon and we didn’t dominate enough collisions and get enough front-foot ball to have a real chance.”
In the circumstances he admitted that “I didn’t learn a huge amount in terms of captaincy. It was hard work from a tactical point of view. We’re better than that, we know that. We just have to get a bit more edge to us in training and not overthink things. It’s (primarily about) physicality and discipline.
Wales head coach Wayne Pivac arrived at the same conclusions as his captain while focusing on the penalty count. Wales conceded 14 to Ireland’s six but the home side didn’t concede one in the opening 40-minutes.
Pivac explained: “Collectively we talked about the start we wanted, we needed to match them physically and back that up with discipline. We weren’t able to do that which was evident by the penalty count. Defending for long periods, 100 tackles or more in that (first) half and it then makes it hard for you when you do get possession. Fatigue sets in and that happens to any side.
“We have to get our body heights right and work on our intent and I’ve no doubt the boys will work hard on it. The boys came back and fought at the end of each half but we need to work at the start of each half.”
The Welsh coach did express some disappointment that his side didn’t get the benefit of some officiating decisions at scrum time. “We might disagree with a few of them, we thought we were going well in the scrums and those decisions might have gone another way.
“Josh (Adams) saved us on a number of occasions. It’s easy to talk about out wide but it is what goes on inside (that sets the tone). It’s not fair to blame one person. When you look at his performance, he (Adams) probably did quite well (in the unfamiliar role of outside centre).”
On the yellow card incident when Adams clattered into Ireland captain Johnny Sexton, Pivac said: “Seeing it live, the referee thought it was fine and two players collided. It’s one of those things, it’s been picked up and we move on.”
